Archive for the ‘Tyrrell P34’ tag

In Formula 1, arguably racing’s highest level of evolution, the difference between victory and defeat is often measured in fractions of a second. This has been the case for most of the sport’s history, and history shows that the most successful teams are those unafraid to innovate in order to gain a competitive advantage, no matter how small. In the sport’s modern era, perhaps no team better illustrates this risk-reward principle than Elf-Tyrrell, which stunned the sporting world with its radical six-wheel, four-in-the-front P34 Formula 1 car in the fall of 1975.

The development of such a design dates back to 1968, when engineer Derek Gardner was struggling to overcome the handling difficulties of the gas-turbine-powered, four-wheel-drive Lotus 56. Rather than limit himself to more traditional solutions, Gardner envisioned a car that utilized four small front wheels instead of two conventionally sized ones. Such a layout would potentially offer three benefits: Even though smaller front tires were used, their contact patch would be larger; the brakes (assuming one was fitted to each front wheel) would have more swept area; and smaller front wheels would generate less lift, requiring less downforce to provide grip in corners. On paper, such a car seemed faster and easier to control, but the proof of Gardner’s theories would have to wait; by the time Gardner submitted a design proposal to Andy Granatelli (whose team had taken over development of the gas-turbine cars), USAC was poised to ban the unconventional racers.

In 1974, Gardner, then chief designer for F1′s Elf-Tyrrell team, proposed a radical replacement for the squad’s aging 007 chassis. To overcome the lack of advantage inherent in a sport where most competitors were using the same engine (then the Ford Cosworth V-8 DFV), same gearbox and same (sole-supplier) Goodyear tires, Gardner pitched his six-wheel concept to Kenn Tyrrell. To become F1′s dominant team, Gardner estimated he’d need to find the equivalent of 50 horsepower, and he believed the lesser downforce required by his radical design would deliver just that.

Approval was given to create a prototype, consisting of a Tyrrell 007 chassis with a revised front end. As this would be such a radical departure from conventional thought, a new name was given to the experimental car as well; instead of calling it the Tyrrell 008, it was named the Tyrrell Project 34 (quickly shortened to P34). Tire manufacturer Goodyear, then the sole supplier to F1, agreed to produce the required 10-inch rubber, and the new design was revealed to an astounded motoring press on September 22, 1975. Naturally, the line of questioning soon turned to “does this design work,” but Tyrrell was tight-lipped about testing successes and failures. Perhaps hedging its bets, Tyrrell called the car “an experiment in F1 design.”

Truthfully, testing of the P34 prototype wasn’t going well at all, largely due to the fact that the 007 chassis and aerodynamics were never developed to work with such a radical front end. Though development work at Silverstone revealed how far the team was from having a competitive race car, it also proved that Gardner’s theories about contact patch, brake swept area and tire lift were correct. When this was demonstrated, the team focused all of its effort on producing a race-ready P34 for the 1976 season.

One particularly troubling phenomenon observed by Gardner at Silverstone was due to the diminutive size of the front tires. For each rotation of the conventionally sized rears, the fronts completed 1.6 rotations; at an indicated speed of 200 MPH, this meant that the front tires were traveling at a hard-to-comprehend 320 MPH. The forces created by such high speeds reportedly caused the front tires to grow, nearly separating them from the wheels (though, oddly, without a loss in pressure). To nobody’s surprise, tire wear was far greater on the fronts as well, and brake cooling became an issue that would haunt the team throughout the life of the P34.

Development delays forced Elf-Tyrrell to begin the 1976 season with 1975′s 007 chassis, but by the fourth race of the year in Jarama, Spain, a single P34 was ready for its debut. Driven by Patrick Depailler, the car qualified third on the grid but retired on lap 26 with brake overheating issues. More significantly, the unconventional P34 had out-qualified the other team car, a 007 driven by Jody Scheckter, which qualified 14th. By the next race in Belgium, a second P34 was readied for Scheckter, who would go on to rack up the car’s very first finish (a respectable fourth place). Though both drivers scored numerous podium finishes in the P34 throughout the 1976 season, the car’s crowning achievement came in Sweden, the seventh race of the season; there, Scheckter took the win, followed by Depailler in second.

As the season progressed, it became apparent that Goodyear wasn’t putting much effort into developing 10-inch front tires for the P34, and Gardner estimated that front tire compounds and construction lagged behind rear tire evolution by some six months. From Goodyear’s perspective, this was, perhaps, understandable; Tyrrell represented the only team requiring the unusual front tires, limiting the urgency of developing such a specialized product in a timely manner. Brake overheating continued to be an issue throughout 1976, and no attempted solution worked to solve the problem. Worse, most just added additional weight to a car that was, by F1 standards of the day, already overweight.

Despite the P34′s teething problems, Scheckter managed a third-place finish in the 1976 driver points race, followed by Depailler in fourth. Their performance was good enough to place Tyrrell third in manufacturer’s points, a remarkable achievement considering how revolutionary the P34 was for its time. Still, Gardner knew there was much work to be done to transform the P34 into a consistent winner in 1977, and testing of new designs began almost immediately after the 1976 season ended.

Newly gained sponsorship from First National City Traveler’s Checks allowed Tyrrell to construct a research and development facility at Ockham, Surrey, England, and the team soon recruited Dr. Karl Kempf from Goodyear. His assigned role would be ground-breaking: Build a mathematical model of the P34 so that changes to its design could be “mocked up” and tested via computer, instead of the usual on-track trial-and-error process employed by other teams. Fitted with the most sophisticated electronics and sensors available, the data provided by the P34 (when the sensors functioned properly) helped form the basis of modern F1 car development.

Initially, the updated P34 showed promise. Thanks in part to heavily revised (and far more aerodynamic) bodywork, Depailler turned a testing lap at Circuit Paul Ricard that was a full second faster than the track’s existing F1 record. The performance was good enough for Ken Tyrrell to predict Depailler as world champion in 1977, though it was understood that his newly hired teammate, Ronnie Peterson, would take some time to get used to driving the P34.

The season’s first race, Argentina, was hardly a high note for the team. Despite qualifying third, Depailler’s day would end early with an engine overheating issue, while Peterson’s day would end with a spin and off-track excursion. Things wouldn’t improve much from this point, either: Out of 17 races, Depailler would finish just eight, managing just three podium finishes. Peterson would fare even worse, completing just six races with just a single podium to his credit. No matter how hard the team worked to resolve the issues, the P34 never managed to be a competitive car in 1977. As with the previous season, part of the blame fell on Goodyear, and by the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, it was estimated that the front tires were costing the team two seconds per lap. Tired of the criticism over his design, or perhaps weary of fighting a losing battle, Gardner parted ways with the team.

At the end of the 1977 season, Tyrrell’s two-year experiment with a six-wheeled Formula 1 car was over, but it’s worth pointing out that other teams had tried, and would try, six-wheeled designs featuring four rear wheels. Though it couldn’t be considered successful (at least not in its day), the P34 was hardly a failure: The science it brought to the construction of Formula 1 cars would be its legacy, so in that regard the car had more of a lasting impact on the sport than anybody realized at the time.

That’s not the final chapter on the P34, either. In 1999, a surviving P34 chassis was purchased and updated to contemporary safety standards to compete in the FIA’s Thoroughbred Grand Prix series. Via the use of modern components, brake cooling issues were quickly resolved, and tire manufacturer Avon agreed to supply the required 10-inch tires, now constructed with modern materials and compounds, created from the original Goodyear molds. The reinvigorated P34 was competitive from the first race, and in 2000 the car clinched the series championship. In 2008, a sister P34 took the championship in the Historic Formula One series (formerly the Thoroughbred Grand Prix series), further proving the merits of the car’s design.

While F1 (and IndyCar) regulations now prohibit the use of such a radical design, it appears that Gardner’s ideas had far more merit than anyone realized in the day. Had Goodyear been able to provide competitive tires, and had the team been able to sort the multiple cooling issues that plagued the P4 throughout its original career, today’s Formula 1 grid may have looked quite a bit different.